Cigarette transfer machine



Feb. 11, 1958 w. WACHSMUTH CIGARETTE TRANSFER MACHINE Filed May 16, 1955 "am a m m w n h w Q, i 4. .z

United States Patent 2,822,910 CIGARETTE TRANSFER MACHTNE' Willi Wachisniuth; Hamburg-jBergedorfi Ge'rn iany, assignorto Kurt Ko'rber & C0."K. G.'-, Hamburg Bergedorf, Germany" Application May 16, 1955, Serial No. 568,545 Cla'im"' spriarity, application Genatttty' May 14, 1954' 4 Claims; (Cl. 198-24 The invention relates to cigarette makingmachines and particularly-to a device'for ejecting any desired number of Ci arettes or the like from a conveyor chain which is continuously in motion and is provided with transverse grooves in which the cigarettes are positioned. The cigarettes are transferred to a track'arranged at a right angle with respect to the conveyor chain by means of a slidable member which is attached to a guide arranged at an angle with respect to the lengthwise direction of the'conveyor'chain and is moved in such a manner'that a relatively large pushing surface of thesliding member extends parallel to the-path of movement of the conveyor chain. When this sliding member isactuated, its fiat surface engages 'the'cigarettes at right angle to the movement of the conveyor chainand at the same time the'slidablet'member is also moved in the direction of the conveyor chaini Furthermore, the slidable member performsin addition to this backand forth movement anothermovement in a direction upwardly and downwardly with respect to the conveyor chain; This movement is performed in such a manner that at the beginning of the pushing movement' toward the-conveyor chain, the slidable member is moved downwardly in order to extend into the grooves of the conveyor chain, while at the'end of the advancing movement the slidable member is moved upwardly away from the conveyor chain so that during the followingrearward' movement ofthe slidable meinber, the conveyor chain'is not at all engaged thereby;

It is an object of the invention to solve the problem of effecting a quick andsecure-removal of the cigarettes from the grooved conveyor'chain whereby at the same time by means of a single drive mechanism the entire operation is substantially simplified, particularly in such cases when it should become desirable to eject a differ'ent number'of cigarettes from the groovedconv'eyor chain. The construction of the device of theinvention is not only simple but also very economical.

It is known to employ two cam drives in machines of the mentioned type-one for controlling the back and forth movement, while the other cam drive controls the up and down' 'rnovein'e'ntof the slidable element which ejects the cigarettes from the conveyor chain. When these "niachines 'operafe rather newly, as is th e 'case in conventional machines of this type, these two cam drives operate satisfactorily, but when the machines are to be operated at higher speed, then these cam drives encounter difficulties. Furthermore, the control and adjustment of the two mentioned cam drives is complicated when a different number of cigarettes is to be ejected.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the well-known devices, and, therefore,

the present invention proposes to employ for the back and forth movement and for the up and down movement of the slidable ejecting member a single crank slide device which is driven by a pair of elliptical gears or by a pair of circular gears, the latter of which are eceentrically gout-nailed so that the entire drive mechanism is rotatable F 2,822,910 Patented, Feb. 11, 1958 ice about the 'pivbt point of'the crank armof th'ec'i'arik' slide device. The up and down movement of the slidable ejecting member is controlled by aroller'which is coaxially arranged with respect'fto thecrank drive roller, whereby the-last 'rn'en'tioned", roller moves along a cam plate which isf "rota'tab ly ch ectedwith the slidable ejecting member. Byrotating th entire drive mechanism about the pivot point of the cranki'arni of the crank islidedrive, it is 'pos-f sible'to eject a" difiere'ntniiinbef of; cigarettes from the grooves of the conveyor chain without, the necessity of eiichangin'gj forins'ta amachine element. It is only netesgary te'reptaee't e'liad'of the 's'lidahle ejecting them-- her anojthei' head' wliich co'rr e'sjgi'oiids'in size to the n i t'nbet of "cigarettes to be" ejected from the" conveyor. ch'ainl The dra'wiii-gill u tes'by wa of eiia'mple an embodi mentof the invention" Fig.'2' shows a si eelevation' of a portion ofthe devic'e, partlyin' cross-section, and I Fig. 3 "is "a' partial plar'i view with'p'ortions broken away to straw aisection ofi'line III' III of Fig. 2.

Inth'e drawing,affrarne l issupported by any suitable means (n'o'f'shown) and provided with a pair of parallel guid'e'i'rcd s Z' s'ecuredto'apair of upstanding flanges on said frame 1': A' c'rossj -head, or carriage'3 is slidably mounted} onsaidj 'rodsfZ and, on its lower side, s'aid carriage 3 is' reviaeafwitna recess 11 that extends transversel y of said teds'zentirely below the same.

, A horiiontaldisc 5 is"rotatablymounted in the frame 51 below the rods, Zfaniif, adjacent its periphery, provided with a' vertical p i'ri 25 towliic'h the infierrjings of twobal l bearings 4 and 6 are fikedlysecured'. TheQou'ter ing ofthe'up'perb'all bearing i'isi'sec'ui'edte'ablbck 10 th'at'jisslidably mounted intherec'e'ssll in thejca'r'riage 3. The outer ring" of the lower ball bearing 16 is freely rotatable.

In'a bearing 26"o'n the'top si'deof the "carriages: a horizontal shaft 7 19 is rotatably-rnounted and' o'n on end of'said sli'aft'1 p9" a bel1 crank 18"," 20 is'fiite'dly nib nted with the arm 20hr 'said bell' crank extending substantially horizontally above'thetop surfac of vthecarriage 3. A bolf 24' is'moun'ted in the en'd p rtiO'rio'f said arm 20 with its tree endfl'tow'ards, the 'top' face of the" carriages and surrounded" acoinpres's'ion can; spring 21 having one end 'in engage tent with the arm20'and the other end in engagement with car iage" 3.

The other arr nflfiof said be'll' crank eitteiids downwardly at the side o f the carriage 3 and has securely attached to its lo'vveiend aca'mp 1at'ef17 the cam face 22, 221} of wliichfis in a position to'be engaged 'by the outer ring' of the ball bearing 16 in certain bts'siti ns' of the'p'arts, asj'describ'e'd below; At least the straight ortion 22 of the cam'. facefis' vedin vertical cross-section as indiicatdlby the d' reprsentingsaid, straight ortion 22; ad strnent screw 23 i's provided in said lf-for; apati e V, t .e" eirplained below. V

A'ro'd 12 isnori rota lysecuredt'othe oppo's ite'end of the shaft 19 and carries, at its free end, an ejector member 14 positioned adjacent and on a slightly higher level than a conveyor 13 provided with transverse grooves for supporting cigarettes 27, one in each groove. Adjacent said conveyor 13, on the opposite side thereof from the device described above, is a track 15. Both said conveyor 13 and said track 15 may be parts of a cigarette machine (not shown).

The disc 5 is secured to a shaft 28 which is rotatably mounted in the frame 1 and carries, on its lower end, a gear 6 also secured to said shaft 28. The gear 6 meshes with a gear 7 mounted on a shaft 7a which supports an eccentrically mounted circular gear 8 driven continuously by a gear 9 that is eccentrically mounted on a shaft 9a.

The frame 1 is adjustable on its support (not shown) f to different angular positions on the axis A of the shaft 28. In the present example, the angular position of the frame is such thatthe angle between the rod 12 and the path of movement of the conveyor 13 is 36 which is a suitable angle in the present case when the width of the ejector member 14 corresponds'to a portion of the conveyor 13 containing ten grooves for ten cigarettes. In cases where said width of the ejector member is less, corresponding to a smaller number of cigarettes, a shorter ejector member is substituted and the abovementioned angle is increased by adjustment of the angular position of the frame 1 on the axis A.

In operation, disregarding for the moment the influence of the eccentrically mounted gears 8 and 9, the disc is rotated continuously and the conveyor 13 is moving continuously as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1. Obviously, the block 10 is thereby forced to move back and forth in the recess 11 while the carriage 3 is forced to move back and forth on the rods 2.

In the movement of the carriage 3 towards theconveyor 13, the ejector member 14 engages the ends of ten cigarettes and, while moving along with the conveyor, pushes saidten cigarettes out of their grooves in the conveyor 13 onto the track 15. At the end of this movement (approximately in the position shown in Fig. l), the relative position of the ball bearing 16 and the cam plate 17 is as shown in full lines in Fig. 3. In this position, the ball bearing 16 has just come into engagement with the inclined portion 22a of the cam face 22, 22a on the cam plate 17. Continued movement of the ball bearing 16 along said inclined cam face portion 22a causes the shaft 19 with the bell crank 18, 20 and the cam plate 17 to turn on the axis of said shaft 19 in a clockwise direction as seen in Fig. 2 against the action of the spring 21. Said turning movement continues until the ball bearing 16 reaches the end of the inclined cam face portion 22a and causes the ejector member 14 to be raised to a level where it can pass freely above the conveyor 13 and the cigarettes thereon in the return stroke of the ejector member 14.

As the carriage 3 and the shaft 19 continue their movement as a unit on the rods 2, the ball bearing 16 moves along the cam face 22 towards the right in Fig. 3 and when the carriage 3 reaches the position 3 the cam face 22 is in the position 22' as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3. In other words, due to the above described turning of shaft 19 the cam plate 17 is lagging behind the carriage 3 a distance equal to the difference between M and N during the, movement of the ball bearing 16 approximately from its top position to its bottom position as seen in Fig. 3. In the meantime the block 10 completes the righthand half of its stroke, as seen in Fig. 1. While said block 10 completes the lefthand half of its stroke, as seen in Fig. 1, and the ball bearing moves approximately from its bottom position to its top position, as seen in Fig. 3, the ball bearing is obviously out of engagement with the cam plate 17 and the relative position of the carriage 3 and the cam plate 17 is as indicated in full lines in Fig. 3. The ejector member 14 is then, again, in its lower screw 23 in an obvious manner. The bolt 24 is adjustable to limit the upward movement of the ejector member 14 and it is evident that said limit should be somewhat beyond the point to which said ejector member 14 is actually raised by the action of the ball bearing 16 on the cam face 22.

The function of the eccentrically mounted gears 8, 9 is to enable variation of the rotational velocity of the disc '5 while the drive source and the shaft 9a are rotating with uniform speed, as is well known in the art of power transmission. Elliptical gears are, of course, mechanical equivalents of the eccentrically mounted circular gears 8, 9 and could be used for the same purpose.

What I claim is:

1. Means for transferring cigarettes from transverse grooves in a continuously moving horizontal conveyor onto an adjacent receiving band, comprising horizontal guidemeans mounted beside said conveyor-and forming 'an-acute adjustable anglewith the trailing end portion 'end of a plurality of cigarettes disposed in said conveyor grooves, lever means non-rotatably secured to said shaft and provided with a cam surface, guide surface means on said cross-head extending transversely of said guide means, disc means mounted adjacent said guide means for rotation on a vertical axis, first means eccentrically mounted on said disc means for engagement with said guide surface means, and second means eccentrically mounted on said disc means for engagement with said cam surface,

whereby rotation of said disc means causes reciprocation of said cross-head with said ejector means on said horizontal guide means during simultaneous sliding back and forth of said first eccentrically mounted means on said guide surface means and intermittent turning of said shaft to raise said ejector means through engagement of said second eccentrically mounted means with said cam surface.

2. Means as in claim 1, in which said first and second eccentrically mounted means comprise two rollers concentrically and rotatably mounted on a pin projecting from said disc means at a distance from the center thereof.

3. Means as in claim 1, in which said lever means comprises a bell crank, one arm of which carries said cam surface while the other arm carries means for adjustably limiting the turning movement of said shaft and for bias ,ing said shaft in the direction corresponding to engagement between said ejector means and the cigarette ends. 

